Abra female board member, 3 others charged with murder

MANILA, Philippines - Police filed murder charges last Friday against a provincial board member of Abra and three others for the killing of a Filipino-Swiss in the capital town of Bangued town last Nov. 23.

Charged before the Abra prosecutor’s office were board member Ma. Elena Jenkins, Bartolome Sebastian, Isikiel Panabang, and a certain Joseph.

Director Samuel Pagdilao Jr., chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, said the filing of charges against Jenkins and her alleged cohorts finally solved the killing of Marc Gerald Alfred Aubord, 26, a resident of Barangay Causapan in Danglas, Abra.

Pagdilao said Aubord’s killing is the third “cold” or unsolved heinous crime solved by the CIDG in Abra and Apayao. 

Senior Superintendent Pedro Austria Jr., CIDG-Cordillera chief, said the killing stemmed from a property dispute between Jenkins and her older sister, Gemma Franco, common-law wife of Aubord’s father Gerald.

Franco used to be supportive of Jenkins but differences between them ensued when the former met and began living in with the elder Aubord.

This allegedly prompted Jenkins to focus her anger toward her sister’s Swiss common-law husband, said Inspector Elmer Roberto Balaba, CIDG-Abra chief.

Wishing that the Swiss national would leave Abra for good, Jenkins allegedly ordered the killing of the young Aubord, which was an easier target than his father, Balaba said.

Records show that the young Aubord was crossing the Calaba Bridge in Bangued on his motorcycle when he was shot in the head. Police recovered an empty .45-caliber shell at the crime scene.

Austria said several witnesses pointed to Jenkins as the alleged mastermind and financier of the killing, while Sebastian and Joseph were tagged as the gunmen.

Panabang, for his part, was the one who supposedly identified and pinpointed the young Aubord to the gunmen.

Aside from the Aubord case, Pagdilao said the CIDG-Cordillera has also solved the killings of Michael Bernal also in Bangued last March and forester Kennedy Bayani in Luna, Apayao last May.